READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Rallying slogan
"Secondary Quest Updated."
———
[Unheard Cries]
You have found five letters left by a man named Morris. Through the aged sheepskin parchments, you catch a glimpse of the tragic prologue that once unfolded in this small town.
Find Morris' remains: 0/1
Morris' Left Arm: 1/1
———
Give Me Medicine shared the updated quest text with his teammates and couldn't help but comment, "This is only the beginning of the tragedy. The damned developers are clearly not human."
"Regardless of whether they are inhumane or not, the quest still needs completing," said Unceasing Entropy. "The town has been repeatedly cleaned by players, so it's highly unlikely that Morris' remains would be on the surface. The zombie NPCs in town are mostly intact and I haven't seen any one-armed ones. What do you guys think?"
"It can only be underground, I guess," Brother Lahong casually remarked.
"Hey, that's too broad of a scope. Underground can mean anything from underground caves to simply burying something anywhere," Qin Guan interjected.
Blossoming Strokes pondered for a bit before sharing her speculation. "I have this guess that if the developers intended to reveal the background storyline of Exile Town through hidden quests, then each stage of this quest should be related to the new game content that becomes available after completion. The unlocking of 'Exploration Mode,' which is the first phase, is clearly connected to the primary quest, 'Letters to Home.' Morris' wife took the wrong tunnel, which was the monster spawn point for us players."
"Hmm?!" Unceasing Entropy's body shuddered. "Wait. If that's the case, then 'Unheard Cries' is related to the second phase of unlocking the territory reputation, and completing this quest will unlock the Territory Prestige system?! Wait, wait, wait. If we consider it like this, then the process of finding Morris' remains is the process of unraveling a greater tragic mystery. In that case—"
"Yes, it's possible that the remains aren't underground but in an unexpected yet logical place." Blossoming Strokes nodded solemnly.
"Can you two speak in plain language?" Qin Guan muttered stoically.
Blossoming Strokes explained, "The quest's name is 'Unheard Cries,' and Morris' letters mentioned how 'they turned a deaf ear to the desperate cries that were close by.' For the characters in the storyline, the 'tragedy' of this town is actually displayed openly, but everyone turns a blind eye to it. If this is a subtle hint from the developers to the players, we can interpret it as Morris' remains being placed somewhere that everyone can see but won't discover."
Qin Guan, Give Me Medicine, Brother Lahong, and others: "… :("
"Please, get to the point. I just want to play the game without racking my brains," Give Me Medicine grumbled.
"I sort of understand now. You are suggesting that Morris is actually in the most prominent place, right?" Jiang Wei, who hadn't participated in the discussion, suddenly spoke up. "And the most prominent place here is, without a doubt, the Town Hall, isn't it?"
Blossoming Strokes snapped her fingers. "Bingo."
Give Me Medicine stared in astonishment at Jiang Wei who had just spoken. Come on, brother. I didn't hold a grudge against you for trying to compete with me for the Orb of Deception. Why do you have to pop up at this moment to embarrass me?!
With that, this group of players hurriedly made their way to the Town Hall.
The Town Hall where the Lord NPC stayed wasn't a building that could be called impressive. It was just a plain square-shaped earthen hut that was only slightly better than a rural house. Due to the NPC inside barely acknowledging anyone and a level requirement of 1 needed for players to interact with him, very few players bothered to come here. Most of them would buy what they needed from the neighboring tailor NPC and leave.
When the group of players arrived, they didn't need to search specifically. Everyone's gaze immediately fell on the sign above the entrance.
The wooden sign hanging on the Town Hall bore a few large characters. "Exile Town Municipal Office." And above the large words was an ornamental skull.
Players who passed by here regularly, or even those who were farming the Lord's reputation, like Win By Grinding, Blossoming Strokes, and Unceasing Entropy, hadn't paid attention to this skull before. The NPC residing inside was a black mage officially titled the "Undead Race Resurrection Master," and it wasn't any surprise there that a black mage's dwelling would have a skull as decoration.
But now, the players who had spent the past two hours (in-game time) following the plot of the hidden quest had completely different sentiments when they saw this skull…
Even Unceasing Entropy, the rational intellectual, couldn't help but ridicule, "Although I know very well that our Undead Race Resurrection Master isn't a good person, he's actually using an actual human skull as decoration. I've underestimated you, Lord Yang!"
"Whoa, f*ck. Is this confirmation that the undead race is an evil faction? Are we really minions of the antagonist?" Qin Guan exclaimed.
Despite their complaints, the players used "Identify" on the skull above the signboard:
"Upon arriving at Exile Town, Dark Mage Yang encountered an extremely aggressive zombie. After defeating it, he used some of its limbs as fertilizer, discarded another part in the river, and kept the relatively intact skull as an ornament."
Players: "…"
Give Me Medicine stiffly went forward and took the skull down.
"Secondary Quest Updated."
———
[Unheard Cries]
You have found five letters left by a man named Morris. Through the aged sheepskin parchments, you catch a glimpse of the tragic prologue that once unfolded in this small town.
Find Morris' remains: 0/1
Morris' Left Arm: 1/1
Morris' Skull: 1/1
———
"The Undead Race Master's antagonist traits have been revealed. It was this guy who dismembered Morris!" Give Me Medicine exclaimed.
"Extremely aggressive… Does that mean Morris is indeed different from other zombie NPCs? In this context, the 'dream' he had becomes even more terrifying…" Blossoming Strokes gestured for everyone to follow her to the underground herb field while she said that.
Once inside the underground herb field, players started to ridicule the antagonist attributes of the player camp's NPC leader when they encountered the peculiar organism known as the Great Leaf Vine.
Give Me Medicine especially stated rather certainly, "Yang will eventually be an end boss."
Using "Identify" to scan the herb field, the players managed to successfully find "Morris' Torso" and "Morris' Right Arm."
As they carried the four "pieces" and rushed toward the river, some players that just logged in stared weirdly at the three individuals who were holding rotting body parts.
Then, in the riverbed that had a considerable amount of debris and gravel cleared by players over the past few days, the team searched twice before finding Morris' legs.
"Secondary Quest Updated."
———
[Unheard Cries]
You have found five letters left by a man named Morris. Through the aged sheepskin parchments, you catch a glimpse of the tragic prologue that once unfolded in this small town.
Find Morris' remains: 1/1
———
Morris' remains bore many aged battle scars. Perhaps the zombie general, Lancelot Edgar, might know something.
Upon seeing the newly generated quest text, Give Me Medicine felt the urge to flip a table. "Why didn't they just say to find the zombie general? Why go through all this trouble! This game isn't a pay-to-play model. Must they force players to grind this much?!"
"Calm down, bro. That's how quests work," said Brother Lahong, not treating himself as an outsider as he put his arm around Give Me Medicine. "At least this quest only requires us to run errands within the town. Back when I played World of Warcraft, I had to travel across continents for a single quest."
Yang Ying, Tang Jia, and Study Obsessed, who had just logged back in and rushed over to join the group, eyed the zombie legs curiously.
"Qingyue, how come we didn't come across this thing in the riverbed when we were digging there for days?" asked Yang Ying.
"That's normal. Many games have phased items or NPCs for quests. Players without the quest can neither see the quest items nor encounter the related NPCs," explained experienced player Tang Jia on behalf of her friend.
The group hurriedly arrived in front of the zombie general, carrying Morris' scattered remains. Before the players could say anything, the previously unresponsive zombie general took the initiative to look over. His zombie face, which was usually alert, now trembled with excitement. "Isn't this Morris? Compatriots, you've found him?"
"Yes, he was dismembered by Black Mage Yang," Give Me Medicine reported right away.
Unfortunately, these zombie NPCs had very low intelligence. Unlike human NPCs who would react to whatever players said, even the zombie general, who had the strongest "language function" and "interactivity" among all the zombies, was no exception.
He completely ignored Give Me Medicine's report and continued reciting lines to himself in a melancholic tone, "Morris was a sensitive and delicate person. His heart brimmed with emotions, surpassing that of others. That's why he is always trapped in the past, unable to break free no matter how many years pass. It seems he is forever asleep, and that might be the best outcome for him."
"Hey, did you hear what I just said? Morris was killed by Black Mage Yang, and he was dismembered!" Give Me Medicine shouted.
"I'm guessing that according to the quest design, this general will only accept the fact of Morris' death when he sees his entire body. Let's not force it," the eloquent Blossoming Strokes comforted her impatient companion.
She stepped forward and interacted with the general. "We found a letter Morris wrote to his wife. Can you tell us what happened in this town?"
The zombie general fell silent and said sorrowfully, "This is a sad story. Are you prepared to accept the truth?"
"Of course." Blossoming Strokes' eyes lit up, and she immediately activated the recording function.
The zombie general sighed. "I can't remember how many years ago it was, fifty, maybe sixty. I was on a mission near the border of the Duchy of Shiga when I received an urgent request for help from the Pioneer Corps. Thus, I brought you all, my soldiers, to Taranthan."
Blossoming Strokes and Unceasing Entropy exchanged glances, sensing each other's excitement—here it comes! The background plot of the undead race was unfolding!
"General Charlotte, the leader of the Pioneer Corps, used to be my superior. Morris and Yarlyn, members of the Pioneer Corps, were also familiar faces. I wasn't worried about the success of their pioneering mission, but I still cared about their safety. After all, Taranthan has never been peaceful.
"When we arrived here, the atmosphere within the Pioneer Corps wasn't too tense, except for Morris' situation… According to Yarlyn, Morris may have been affected by something and killed Bierda by accident.
"I went to see Morris first and found that he seemed terrified of something and wouldn't communicate with us.
"I ordered my soldiers to keep an eye on Morris and went to see Beirda, who was supposedly killed by him…
"But Bierda's body was gone!
"Faced with my repeated inquiries, Yarlyn had to tell the truth…
"General Charlotte embezzled the funds for purchasing slaves. After the Pioneer Corps arrived in Taranthan, she led the soldiers to attack villages in the neighboring Rhine Kingdom and captured a large number of their citizens to use as agricultural slaves!
"Although the Rhine Kingdom doesn't worship the Goddess of Prosperity like our country does and follows the greedy Lady Gold Coin, since our two countries weren't at war, how could Charlotte plunder, torture, and even cause the death of the citizens of another country?
"Bierda sympathized with the pitiful victims of Charlotte's cruelty. His own soul became contaminated, and even if he wasn't killed by Morris' carelessness, he would have turned into an undead soon after.
"Bierda was 'reborn,' but the contamination he received was passed on to Morris.
"Our friend, Yarlyn, couldn't bear to kill Morris. He went to great lengths to conceal the fact that Bierda had turned into an undead and that Morris had already been contaminated. He hoped I could bring Morris back to our homeland and avoid burdening him with the label of a 'deserter.'
"But… Charlotte wouldn't allow us to take Morris away.
"Charlotte vehemently denied her reckless capture and enslavement of citizens from other nations. She refused to acknowledge any connection between Bierda and Morris' tragedy and herself. She demanded Morris' execution and asked me to guarantee that I would never utter a single word that could tarnish the reputation of the Pioneer Corps.
"Neither could persuade the other, and Charlotte seemed to go mad, wanting to exterminate our border guards entirely.
"When we chose to retaliate out of anger, none of us anticipated that those contaminated wouldn't just be limited to Morris and Bierda. There were many more who sympathized with the innocent citizens of the Rhine Kingdom than Charlotte could imagine.
"Unknowingly, I, too, became infected and started to hear that desperate and maniacal laughter."
At this point, the zombie general sighed sadly. "I don't remember the details of that chaotic event. When I woke up from that blurred haziness, I had already transformed into this state. Meanwhile, some of my soldiers had fallen into eternal rest, while others turned into grotesque walking corpses like me.
"After that, I never saw Charlotte or Yarlyn again.
"Those captured citizens of the Rhine Kingdom who were forced to toil on clearing the wilderness, digging underground shelters, and other arduous tasks didn't receive the promised return to their homeland. Instead, they were concentrated underground and slaughtered.
"Who knew that in their despair, they desperately cried out the name of that 'someone'… Neither Charlotte, who persecuted them, nor Bierda, who sympathized with them, nor us can receive forgiveness…"
The despondent zombie general continued, quickly rallying himself and solemnly declaring, "But even if we lose our right to be human, even if we lose the honor of being the border guards of the Duchy of Shiga, we are still soldiers with the duty to defend. We cannot lose this pride, my fellow compatriots!
"I cannot distinguish who among you are my soldiers, who were once residents of the town, or who were the henchmen aiding Charlotte. But since you have awakened before my eyes, you must heed my call.
"I demand that you reclaim the honor of being citizens and soldiers of the Duchy of Shiga. We, as a reborn new race, will take over the pioneering mission that was defiled by Charlotte. This is our mission, our responsibility!"
The zombie general's speech was surprisingly well-articulated. His husky and villainous voice delivered these passionate lines without any discordance, not only exuding persuasiveness but also revitalizing and invigorating the listeners.
"This is what a leader of a faction should be like!" exclaimed Give Me Medicine, who had initially been dissatisfied with the emotional quest, while slapping his femur in approval.
"Born from chaos but longing for order, huh? Not bad for a rallying slogan of the undead race." Blossoming Strokes gave praise as well.
"The general was a good person in his lifetime. He stood up for the unjustly killed and dared to challenge his superior," Yang Ying remarked.
Before the players could finish giving their positive comments, the zombie general, whose character was upright despite his terrifying appearance, spoke up once more, "We have received friendly assistance from a dark mage. He has brought humans willing to be friends with us, the undead, to help us build a home for our race…"
"Wait a minute, General! Are you sure you received help from the black mage and not an impostor? That guy has been flaunting the title of Lord of Taranthan!" Qin Guan sarcastically retorted.
"General, listen to me. Having that Yang on our side doesn't benefit us at all!" shouted Give Me Medicine.
"Down with the evil humans! Taranthan belongs to the undead!" Tang Jia joined in the ruckus.
Inside the Town Hall, Yang Qiu calmly sipped his milk tea as he closely monitored the player's progress on the quest.
The players were vehemently criticizing the evil black mage Yang, but what did it have to do with the Earthling, Yang Qiu?